Education, enforcement, keep Aliso Beach berm from being breached over summer for first time in decade

LAGUNA BEACH — Sun umbrellas and beach towels spread across a wide sand berm at the mouth of Aliso Creek, at Aliso Beach, have been common sights from Coast Highway for the last several months. But it wasn’t something ocean environmentalists or lifeguards saw much of over the decade prior.

“Pretty much the entire summer, the berm was never breached,” said Jason Young, lifeguard chief for OC Lifeguards, the agency that keeps watch over beaches from Aliso in Laguna Beach to Poche Beach on the border of Dana Point and San Clemente. “First time in my memory where we’ve had an entire summer go by without the berm breaching.”

Not only did water never make its way naturally from Aliso Creek into the ocean, but OC Lifeguards kept close watch for anyone trying to dig culverts to let the water escape.

That, along with decreased runoff from inland communities and possible sand swells that shifted more sand to the mouth of the creek, helped to create one of the largest berms on the beach in four decades. The sand berm is about 50 feet wide and three feet above sea level.

Illegal breaching by beachgoers has been an ongoing issue in years past, said Mike Beanan, co-founder of  the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition, an ocean advocacy group dedicated to protecting Laguna’s state-declared Marine Protected Area.

“When the rush of water — 500 million gallons — discharges and hits the surf, it creates a standing wave at the mouth of the creek,” he said.

Lifeguards are aided by OC Parks rangers and Laguna Beach Police Department Beach Patrol in monitoring the berm. And OC Parks spokeswoman Marissa O’Neil said the public cooperated with warnings; no citations were issued over the summer.

People digging out the berm has been a decades-long issue for Young and his lifeguards.

“We know it will happen when the creek is full,” he said. “Each time it happens, it creates a public safety issue and obvious water quality issue. We have signs posted to avoid contact with the creek water and urban runoff. The other is velocity — it creates a river with high velocity and forms a huge rip current. Everyone there is at risk. It’s enough to cause three- and four-foot rapids and a rip current that goes several hundred feet out to sea.”

Nearly 70 percent of OC Lifeguard rescues at Aliso Beach come from the area where the berm meets the ocean. Some novice swimmers see the still water of the creek as safer than the ocean swells, Young said, but they don’t realize the hazards of urban runoff or the depth of the creek. Even when the berm isn’t breached, the area’s geography poses a risk of mini rip currents.

OC Lifeguards this summer rescued 345 people, made 24,063 preventative contacts and informed 3,179 people about county laws at Aliso Beach.

Inland awareness

Jinger Wallace, who co-founded Laguna Bluebelt, has been an advocate for increased education within inland communities along the creek. In February 2017, she wrote a grant outlining steps to reduce runoff in a specific area where it could be measured.

“I got so tired of hearing people say there is nothing we can do (about the runoff in Aliso Creek),” she said. “I just couldn’t believe we couldn’t come up with a way to measure it. I bet people inland care about the ocean and don’t want to pollute it. I thought it was unfair that inland communities were blamed.”

Wallace partnered with Grant Sharp, manager of the South Orange County Watershed Management Area, part of OC Public Works, who used flow data collected over a two-week period at several outfalls within South Orange County to prioritize where resources should be focused to address urban runoff in dry weather.

One area Sharp identified was an outfall in Aliso Viejo, near Aliso Viejo and Moulton parkways. Wallace added Sharp’s data to her grant proposal and in two weeks had support from Moulton Niguel Water District for a $12,000 education program.

Education results in reduced run-off

As part of the water district’s response to the drought, the agency developed a program to study water usage, said Drew Atwater, Moulton’s director of planning. The agency worked with the county to identify areas contributing to urban run-off and coordinated with the county and the cities of Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, and Mission Viejo, along with environmental organizations including the Laguna Bluebelt and OC Coastkeeper.

Funding for the program comes from Moulton Niguel customers who use more than their individually calculated water budget, Atwater said.

In fall 2017, the water district, Laguna Bluebelt and the County of Orange launched an educational program which includes community forums for homeowners association boards and landscape professionals. Information focuses on landscaping, the regulation of water flow, how to measure water usage and how to create native gardens.

Recent testing shows that the amount of water flow has been reduced since the education strategy went into place.

“The efforts are working,” Sharp said. “We are seeing an overall reduction in flow and we want to keep it that way. This is a positive change the way the berm is staying in place in the summer but we still have a long way to go. We want to get to the point where we eliminate flow in dry weather. If you see a flow in dry weather, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘Why?’ That’s the behavior change we’re trying to inspire.”

Education efforts are continuing and community workshops are scheduled in Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo through the end of the year.

“I think it’s fabulous,” Wallace said. “We’re coming together and finally, at last, making some measurable change in the amount of urban runoff reaching the ocean.”